Tag Archives: Mi’kmaq treaty rights
No more kicking ‘the rock down the road,’ on Indigenous fishery
A member of the parliamentary committee looking at Indigenous rights to a moderate livelihood fishery, says it is past time for government to deal with the issue. The parliamentary fisheries and oceans committee released a report earlier this month containing 40 recommendations on how to move those treaty rights forward. “It’s unfortunate that since the Marshall decision was made in Supreme Court that successive governments, Liberal and Conservative, have what I would call kicked the rock down the road rather than deal with the issue. And we’ve seen that come to a head last year,” said Egmont MP Bobby Morrissey, “Canada and the industry suffered a bit of a black eye from that, and it was unnecessary.” >click to read< 10:05
Nova Scotia: The hidden fight for baby eels – Court docs reveal why DFO shut down the elver fishery for all of 2020
The federal department had been closely monitoring, and in some cases prosecuting, the unauthorized sale of baby eels harvested by Mi’kmaq under Food, Social and Ceremonial (FSC) eel licences since 2017. The appearance of more than 110 Indigenous fishermen at the beginning of April 2020, up from 21 across the region in 2019, quickly forced a shutdown of the little known but lucrative fishery throughout the Maritimes, the documents state. DFO was in the middle of a collision between Mi’kmaq asserting treaty rights and commercial harvesters anxious to protect a fishery worth $38 million in 2019. >click to read< 08:32
Livelihood lobster fishing cast adrift: How DFO’s inaction has history repeating itself
Its resources are in high demand by Indigenous and non-Indigenous fishers alike, and for more than 20 years it has seen tensions between the two communities turn from boil to simmer, to boil again. Recently, it made headlines internationally. Tensions in the area erupted into violence and destruction after the Sipekne’katik First Nation launched its own, self-regulated fishery, outside of the commercial season, based on Mi’kmaq treaty rights. To Alex McDonald, one of the oldest still-fishing Indigenous lobster boat captains of the area, the chaos this year was nothing new. >click to read< 08:14
